I like to ride my bicycle - for long distances. I have earned the California Triple Crown and finished the Furnace Creek 508. My goals include qualifying for RAAM and ...(read the blog to find out).
"The bicycle has a soul. If you are able to love it as it deserves, it will give you emotions you will never forget."
Mario Cipolini
"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride."
John F. Kennedy
"The important decisions in my life I make while out riding my bike."
Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
"Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever.” Lance Armstrong
Friday, June 26, 2009
Dinner in the Pink House Cafe
Tonight, we travelled to the small town of Independence to have dinner in the newly remodeled Pink House Cafe.
April 19, 2009
By Geoff Parks • Special to the Statesman Journal • April 19, 2009
INDEPENDENCE — There's big doings on D Street for Paul Reiter.
During the past quarter-century, he has purchased, remodeled and leased five houses in Independence with a sixth nearing the last stages of completion.
Ask Reiter, 54, why he painted an 1870s-era, Gothic Revival residence a subdued shade of pink with white trim and he answers quickly.
"People are always asking me, 'Where is it?' and I just say, 'It's the pink house,' and they know what I'm talking about," he said.
He owns two more homes in other areas of the city.
The Pink House was orginally at Third and C streets and is known as the J. S. Cooper House to reflect its historical ownership.
Cooper was a pioneer entrepreneur who moved into the home shortly after arrival in the Mid-Willamette Valley in the 1880s, and lived in it for about 20 years, Reiter said.
He built a saloon on nearby Main Street in the 1880s, later replacing the small building with the J. S. Cooper Block building. That distinctive brick structure, with its tower and imposing facade, now houses the Speakeasy Tavern.
Reiter's involvement with refurbishing old houses has a lot to do with his multi-faceted employment background and his love of people.
Raised in Washington by dairy farmers, he learned firsthand the value of the hard work and long days it took to keep milk flowing from farm to consumer.
He began a long career with Boise Cascade in Washington and then was transferred to the company's Valsetz mill in 1979, where he served as a production line supervisor. He moved from Falls City to Dallas in 1981.
The area encompassed within C and D and Second and Third streets represents one of the oldest neighborhoods in Independence, and Reiter has been such a good neighbor that as people moved out, he became the first choice to purchase their homes.
Self taught in construction, he remodeled the first home he ever owned — on D Street — but recently signed it over to his daughter and new son-in-law as a wedding gift. He now lives across the street in a home he purchased from a neighbor and subsequently refurbished.
But Reiter and the Pink House have a slightly different storyline, one that neatly dovetails with neighbor Bill Nix's own history with the Gothic Revival home.
"It was the only structure of its kind built in town," Nix said. "We know that there were none of them built after the American Centennial in 1876 because of (the style's) connection to England." Gothic Revival also is known as Early English.
The Cooper House was originally sited at 3rd and C streets, but in 1907 "was rolled on logs from 3rd and C across the street to 3rd and D," Nix said. "That house was a rental for years and years, then was sold to Mom (Rose Englehaupt) in the early 1980s for $14,000." During the next few years, mother and son lived in the home and worked to "hammer it back together," he said.
At the age of 70, Englehaupt wrote a humorous note on the drywall that Reiter is preserving:
"Whoever strips this (wall) paper should know that on Oct. 24, 1986, Mrs. Rose Englehaupt, aged 70, and her son, Bill Nix, aged 46, did have one hell of a time keeping the line straight! Hope you are having a nice day."
"That sounds like Mom," Nix said. "She was very involved in what I was doing there because she loved old houses."
The block eventually was purchased by the city, which sold it to Reiter for a small sum when the block was being cleared for the new Independence Cinema in the early 2000s. Reiter paid to have it moved to its present location directly across D Street from the movie house.
Reiter earned a degree in horticulture at Linn-Benton Community College a few years ago, and has used that new expertise to liven up the Pink House's front yard with colorful and practical bushes, flowers and other plants.
While Reiter has worked off and on for the past two years to completely rehabilitate the building, Nix plans to help out by turning new spindles to replace missing or damaged ones as Reiter restores the oak balustrade that winds from the entryway to second-floor rooms.
Nix discovered a gothic window frame hidden behind the lath-and-plaster walls at the top of the staircase. The window is now a central feature of the front of the house.